Posts tagged GeekGirlCon

I used to go to WonderCon every year when I was younger. Anyone who goes to Cons regularly, knows you have your “Con Posse” (not to be confused with “clown posse” like Harley Quinn will now have with her new ICP-esqu costume… but I digress). When I was younger I was the one girl in a group of many dudes. After I had my son I stopped going, in the past year I have been back to attending. And have added more cons to my list of must see. In the time that I was away a major change happened. The con posse I’ve joined is 99% GIRLS! This is pretty phenomenal for a gal who has grown up getting the stink eye from the dudes (and gals) behind the counters at comic shops.

It’s not too surprising that we now have our own convention. GeekGirlCon –located at the Seattle Center and EMP– was a slightly bittersweet event for me. I was on the staff, one of the original members, first person to buy a pass, etc. I was the Vice President and Operations Director, filed the incorporation paperwork opened the bank account, yada yada. No one ever really cares about “Operations,” it’s the department that does all the behind the scenes work that allows the more creative types to do the shiny stuff. I had to leave the organization because of the huge amount of time it required. Since the staff is 100% unpaid volunteers I was essentially working a second full time job for no pay; and I have a husband and child. So it finally got to the point of having to choose, GGC or child. Obviously my child had to win. So the sweet part was how AWESOME of a time I had, and how amazing it was to see that both days sold out. The bitter part was that I was seeing it from the outside.

I do have to say it was a bit nice to not have to be working this weekend and was able to just enjoy the convention as a panelist/attendee. I got to romp around with a posse of amazingly talented and fun folks. I stayed out too late, drank too much (though oddly didn’t once get drunk) and was introduced to the most amazing alcohol I have ever tasted by the lovely Stephanie Thorpe.

I drove up Friday night with my “fake niece”, who is the 16 year old anime obsessed, blue haired daughter of a friend. Stopped by the airport to pick up a few friends then checked into our AH-MAY-ZING hotel the Marqueen, on Queen Ann St in Seattle. After that I met up with friends for drinks, a walk up a monstrosity of a hill and dinner with more friends.

"Token Dudes Panel"

Saturday morning I got up, had breakfast at Mecca Café, if you go to Seattle you MUST try this place. They have awesome bacon, great waffles; you get a mini pitcher when you order iced tea and the receipt showed that our server’s name was “BAT GIRL”. I attended the very fun “token dudes” panel. That night I attended the unofficial CheeseCon at The Melting Pot – go to twitter, look up the hashtag #CheeseCon to see the hilarity—which was one of the most fun dinners I have ever been to.

Every panel I attended had one common theme; Women need to support one another and act as the “elders of the internet” to support the younger generation. The vendor room, while small was diversely filled thanks to the hard work of Dixie Cochran. I only peeked my head into the gaming room but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

It was nice to see so many little girls dressed in cosplay. There was one family who had I think 3 daughters, all dressed up as different versions of Princess Leia. Most people I saw were smiling and having a good time. Sunday I was the assistant for Miss Bonnie Burton’s craft panel. The creativity of the attendees was awesome. We had Yoda, Tardis, Doctor Who and even… GASP… Star Trek puppets made.

Really the only negative thing I can think of was the fact that it was spread out between the Northwest rooms and the EMP. This would have been fine if panelists weren’t scheduled for back-to-back panels on opposite sides of each other. It is about a 10 minute walk between The NW Rooms and the EMP so if your panel ends at 4 and the next one starts at 4 there is no way to make it on time. But being a first year con I am sure they will keep that in mind for next year. There are some doubts as to whether the NW rooms will be available for 2012 but I am sure they will announce the location when it is secured.

All in all I am happy with the changes to convention culture that have occurred since I first started attending them. Girls are having more and more panels aimed at them, and hopefully, sometime soon, we won’t NEED to have a GeekGirlCon because all cons will be equally targeted for all audiences. And I look forward to seeing my Con Posse as soon as I possibly can. They are a group of individuals who inspire me to push myself and go for my dreams and I love them all in special and different ways.

Kick off your GeekGirlCon weekend at the GeekGirlCONcert starring nerd-chanteuse Marian Call! Also on the bill are the Seattle ukulele prodigy, Molly Lewis, and nerd-folk singers from Portland, The Doubleclicks. Plus special performances by a few GeekGirlCon ladies.

General admission tickets are $15 at the door or $10 with student ID or proof of purchase of a GeekGirlCon pass. General admission tickets are limited seating available, first come, first serve. Otherwise, standing room ONLY. If you need special assistance and/or a reserved chair, please contact Kelly at specialevents@geekgirlcon.com.

$25 for VIP tickets. This show is all ages, but VIP tickets are for 21 and older only. VIP tickets guarantee seating close to stage and access to VIP area with a wine and beer cash bar.

GeekGirlCon passes, student ID’s, and ID’s will be checked at the door.

Marian Call marked her place in the geek pantheon when she released the Firefly and Battlestar Galactica themed CD, Got to Fly, for geek purveyors Quantum Mechanix. Marian will also be at GeekGirlCon on October 8th and 9th. Stay tuned to geekgirlcon.com for details.

Molly Lewis plays the ukulele and sings, and then she posts videos of herself playing the ukulele and singing to YouTube. Her songs about Stephen Fry and Abe Lincoln are instant classics.

The Doubleclicks are two sisters, Aubrey and Angela, who sing and beatbox their way to nerd fame. Their new EP Blatant Pandering has songs about D&D, superpowers, Jurassic Park, Cthulu, and cosplay–all things Geek Girls love.

Don’t rely on mp3s and the youtubes, here’s your opportunity to see these performers live and in-person at the GeekGirlCONcert!

Seattle, WA, February 2011 — GeekGirlCon, Nerds in Babeland, and Geek Girls Network present Geek Girls Edit Wikipedia, an activity any geek girl with an internet connection can participate in. For one amazing weekend, we are encouraging geeky women to go on Wikipedia and create and edit articles about our favorite geeky topics.

Women account for only 15% of all Wikipedia contributions, and we want to raise this participation rate. We know many of you have expertise in a wide variety of topics and can contribute valuable information to Wikipedia, which has become the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet. Wikipedia is the 7th most visited website; and more women’s knowledge needs to be added to this resource.

Please join us by adding to this great community knowledge base. You can chat about your contributions or keep a record of what you’ve edited over on GeekGirlCon’s forums.

GeekGirlCon is a non-profit organization passionate about promoting women’s contributions to geek culture. We are having our first annual convention October 8 and 9, 2011 in Seattle at the Seattle Center Northwest Rooms. To find out more about GeekGirlCon visit http://www.geekgirlcon.com.

There are so many awesome things happening with GeekGirlCon right now that I’m afraid I’m going to forget stuff. Just to be safe, I figured I’ll just include the massive banner advertising the upcoming Benefit Concert going down in Seattle next month. The best part of this concert? You get FIVE acts for just $7 OR $6 with a donation of 2 non-perishable food items for the Ballard Food Bank! (Cash only at the door). Information on buying tickets for the event will be listed at the bottom of this post.

In case you don’t follow the fabulous Bonnie Burton (@bonniegrrl) on Twitter, she is an author, writing several Star Wars craft and art books, content for starwars.com, the official Star Wars Blog and is the brains behind the Star Wars twitter page! Aside from her work with Star Wars, she has written the books “Girls Against Girls: Why We Are Mean to Each Other and How We Can Change” and “Never Threaten to Eat Your Co-Workers.”

The lovely and wonderful Erica McGillivray is turning 27 this year (just like me!) and she only has one birthday wish: make GeekGirlCon happen! I’m not going to describe the convention again as many of you have heard the same speech from me many times before AND those of you who are super ambitious can search through our archives for previous articles (there is even a drop down selection for GeekGirlCon!).

You can read her full letter/plea for birthday gifts on her blog, but Erica is asking for a simple birthday gift. Instead of gifts or dinner or any of those things, she just wants her friends to donate a couple of dollars to GeekGirlCon. Her goal is to raise $500 before her birthday on Dec 13th. In the meantime, Erica is posting a new story about herself and her life as a geek every day on her blog. They’re fun and run the gamut from her desire to marry Geordi LaForge as a child to her decision to be a vegetarian later on in life.

Of course, most of us don’t know her in person and probably wouldn’t be taking her out for dinner or drinks but that isn’t really the point of this fundraiser. I don’t know about you guys and gals but I have made a lot of awesome friends lately through the geek and nerd community online. I’ve even bought holiday and birthday gifts for people I haven’t even met in real life (yes, I acknowledge this means I could be buying gifts for creepy pervs in their basements but I don’t really think that applies to these people ;-)). Erica even writes about this on Day 8 of her Birthday Bash series of posts. Point is, I’ve met some truly awesome people online and if I lived in their part of the country/world I would love to go out with them for their birthday. Erica is definitely one of those people (actually, I would LOVE to take the entire GeekGirlCon group out for drinks but sadly I’m not in Seattle…and I’m poor).

I can’t wait until GeekGirlCon happens and I can finally meet up with all these wonderful people. However, you know, (and here is my shameless plea) we need a tiiiny bit of money from everyone in order to make it happen. 100% of the money that is getting donated will go to helping make the convention happen and everyone helping out with the convention is a volunteer so, truly, none of us are profiting from these fundraisers in a financial manner. Hell, if you love Nerds in Babeland and want to get us an awesome Christmas/Hanukkah present? Donate some dollars or even cents in our name to Erica’s Birthday fundraiser and you can kill two birds with one stone!

GeekGirlCon is picking up major steam and if you happen to be lucky enough to live in Seattle you should definitely join them for this event. I mean, who doesn’t love fun, nerdy holiday ornaments? And you can learn how to do it on your own so that next year you’re all set to do DIY ornaments for friends and coworkers.

In case you missed my previous posts about this event, you can click over to their awesomesauce website to find out more information.

“GeekGirlCon is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting awareness of and celebrating the contribution and involvement of women in all aspects of sci-fi, comics, gaming and related Geek culture through conventions and events that emphasize both historic and ongoing contribution and influence of women in this culture.” The best part about this organization, however, is that it is not exclusive to women participants. The idea is to celebrate an aspect of geekdom that does not get nearly enough attention, namely to show that women have an important role in this culture also. In other words, dudes are more than welcome to volunteer/help out also!

Summary: Sunday, December 5th at 2:30 p.m. at the Summit at Madison, 1730 22nd Ave E, Seattle, WA 98122 and to RSVP BY DECEMBER 3RD by emailing graphics@geekgirlcon.com.

If you don’t live in the Seattle area, there are other ways to support the convention. Check out the website and, if nothing else, donate a few dollars to the cause!

Don’t forget to support these gals! This week they’re auctioning off a “Video Game Voters Network” (size lg) tee and sealed copy of Aion The Assault on Balaurea. Game includes original Aion and The Assault on Balaurea and one month of game play!

Bids start at $15. Email bids to sponsor@geekgirl.com by 5pm tomorrow. Their facebook page has more details.

The group’s description in their own words:

Let’s face it, the male to female ratio at cons for panels is slightly off. Not necessarily on purpose…but it is. However, female fandom has shown that it is coming into it’s own as evidence of the San Diego Comic Con’s recent ‘Geek Girls Exist’ panel which had to turn people away at an already overpacked room. When you have fans fighting to get in to listen to women talk about their careers & fandom of the female realm, AND being up against the ‘Scott Pilgrim vs the World’ panel…there’s something to be said about that.

Not to mention the party, ‘GeekGirls & Friends TweetUp’, that had to turn people away after 200 guests packed Jolt N Joes in the San Diego Gaslamp district. We have Kristin, Jill & Andrea, 3 gals part of www.geekgirlsnetwork.com to thank for such an awesome gathering!

The best part was that the population of that panel & party was not necessarily all women! Guys appreciate what we gals do as well! We are into week 2 since idea conception and we’re constantly asked, “Can guys help too?” Of course you can! We are not trying to single you out of the equation of female fandom.

We know you love your girlfriends, wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, meemaws and/or friends who’ve taken their fandom to an all time high. Know that we haven’t forgotten about you guys! We are planning on having a GeekGirl Appreciation Stage as well!

But this con is for the ladies! What do you love? It’s not necessarily all froofy froo froo…it’s also badass, kickin butt stuff. Gaming. Movies. GeekMusic. Costuming. Comic Books. SciFi. Science. History. Technology. And maybe just a little bit of Roller Derby?

Why haven’t we had a GeekGirlCon yet? The idea of being a nerdy girl who’s interested in the same things as guys, isn’t a new concept…it just isn’t as widely celebrated. But that will all change with this event. Stay tuned. We’ll have some pretty exciting things coming your way.

Just a reminder that the lovely ladies of GeekGirlCon are still holding silent auctions via Twitter. All items being auctioned off are donated by vendors/merchants, geeky crafters, GeekGirlCon organizers and anyone else who wants to make sure this event happens. All winning bids will go straight to GeekGirlCon. No bids are ever too small!

Currently this super awesome leopard purse/tote is on sale through tishalulle1‘s etsy store. I know I know we spend a lot of money and suggest a lot of stuff on this site but this is for another great Nerdy/Geek girl cause 🙂 Also, everything in tishalulle1‘s etsy store goes 100% to GeekGirlCon.

New auction items go up around Thursday or Friday. I will continue to post them as they come out!

GeekGirlCon will be holding random silent auctions via Twitter. All items being auctioned off are donated by vendors/merchants, geeky crafters, GeekGirlCon organizers and anyone else who wants to make sure this event happens. Feel free to donate something awesome if you want. All winning bids will go straight into making GeekGirlCon be as great as we can make it. No bids are ever too small!